Final Year

At the end of this month, I'll be heading back to university to start my third and final year of university.

It is crazy that two years ago I was getting ready to head to my first year of university. Nobody lies when they say university flies by because it really does.

This is like the most important year out all of them because these assignments all add up to your degree and determines what grade you'll get. It's also about figuring out what you're going to do after university which is something I'm not even sure I know yet but I'll have to figure it out and do my research.

It's all the year of the dreaded ten thousand word dissertation which I am already freaking out about and I haven't even begun it yet. Although I have started coming up with ideas and questions to do for it. I'd recommend you do this before starting your third year because at least in the first lecture you can tell your tutor your ideas and then they'll let you know which ones are good. That way you can actually start doing your research rather than spending weeks trying to figure out a research question for your dissertation. You definitely want to start working on it as soon as possible because the year will just fly by.

One of the biggest tips I have learned is when you get back to university, on the third week after freshers week and the first week of lectures is to start doing research for your assignments. I'm not saying like flat out write all your assignments. I'm just saying start doing some research and get a rough idea on what you have to do for it. That way when you look at your lecture schedule and you see a lecture which could link to your assignment then you'll know that you have to take notes for it and you can be prepared to look back at those lecture slides for when it comes to doing your assignment.

Another big tip I can give you is to talk to your lecturers about your assignments. I know it can be scary to show your work to your lectures. Believe me I know. I started doing it in second year although not a lot. There was just one research assignment where I showed my work and asked for my lecturers advice but honestly it helped me so much. Lecturers are there to help you. They want you to pass but they're not going to go after you for your work. That's your job and honestly if you actually go to them and tell them you're struggling with an assignment or you're not sure if what you're writing is right then they can read it over and help you. If you don't go and see them then they'll assume you're fine with the assignment. You don't even have to go see them face to face. You can email it to them and they'll email you back notes or they may ask you to come and see them about the assignment. They won't yell at you or think you're stupid if you're doing it wrong. They'll actually be happy that you've come with them. It just shows them that you care about your work and that you want to get a good mark in your degree so they'll help. They won't tell you what to write but they'll point you in the right direction.

My final tip would be to have a list of your assignments in the order that they're due in because honestly you can see which assignments are due in first and which ones you may need to put in a bit more focus on. Also use your planner and write down when all your assignments are due in. I don't really use my planner much because I normally rely on the list of assignments dates as well as a wall calendar. I'd highly recommend an academic wall calendar because basically your whole year is one sheet of A3 paper and you can actually see how much time you have before all your deadlines and when each of your deadlines are due in.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about third year of university. I wish everyone good luck on whatever year they are in for university, college, sixth form or school. Make it the best year yet and just have fun. Soon you'll have to join the world of adulthood which is just as scary.

I'll be doing blog posts for the rest of the week every day for five days all about university so look out for those because they'll be useful to anyone who is going to university.

See you tomorrow.

Megan x